LOS ANGELES -- The Gaslighter makes his way to the stage of "NAW or Never: Smack Talk Open Mic" during a December show. Wearing a black hood over his fedora and sunglasses to complete his persona, he begins to boast about winning the NAW championship at the last show.

"I am now the NAW, Intercontinental, Breakfast, Continental, World Heavyweight, European, North American, Intergender, X Division, Y Division, Z Division … champion and not a single one of you is ever going to take it from me," he proclaims.

"Even this turtle," the Gaslighter says, pointing to the show's security guard dressed as a velociraptor.

No, that wasn't an acid dream, that was a night with Shane Hartline and his ensemble of wrestling enthusiasts of "NAW," a wrestling open mic. The stage puts a spotlight on smack-talk skills, functioning like a gym where wrestlers work out their character muscles, polish their submission holds and perfect their trash-talking chops in front of a panel of judges. The practice allows them to build a presence in the ring that crushes their opponents harder than a suplex.

The structure is the same during their monthly shows. Performers put their name into a bucket, Hartline draws from it and the performers have 60 seconds to perform their promo. After the performance, his revolving panel of judges gets into a verbal exchange where they share feedback and refine their character.

Regardless of the format, Hartline leaves room for unpredictability by unleashing his company's cast like the Head of Marketing Department or the Department of Grappling Education (DOGE). Even if the promo is rough around the edges, Hartline creates a space that encourages creativity. He wants performers to create a fantastical world that helps grow the universe within NAW, or Nearly Average Wrestling.

Hartline, the creator of the show, described the concoction as a mixture of theater, performance arts and character development. The former professional wrestler who took the ring in the Florida independent wrestling scene, actor and comedian lives by the old cliché: Once you're in wrestling, you never really leave.

"I'm so excited about it because it truly combines every one of my passions and my interests in the perfect package for the first time in a live show setting," he said.

"Even though it's wrestling and it's like aggression and all that kind of energy, I do want to lay the foundation of a welcoming positive energy," he said.

On stage, if he sees potential or room for improvement, Hartline plays the role of a manager. He directs the talent, he seeks help from his deck of characters and he wants to continue the workout.

"It'd be dumb of me to get you off stage as [quickly] as possible," Hartline added. "I want to find more bits with you. I want you to not only play with the judges, but play with our 'NAW' recurring cast members."

"Mic work plays such an important role in wrestling," said Jenn Sterger, an ex-wrestler, now comedian who's been a part of the judging panel. "The audience needs to know who to root for, it needs to buy into the story, staying in character is super important."

Sterger said she's seen a lot of character work fall flat, even in the "big leagues" when it comes to wrestling, just because they didn't know how to be a convincing storyteller. "[NAW] is a nice little building block for that, but it's also a nice place where people can kind of come and try out fun bits as characters," she said, adding that character is everything in the ring.

"You have to have attitude," Peter Avalon, one-half of DOGE, said. "... you got to bring a larger-than-life personality, you have to have an attitude that takes no prisoners and doesn't give a s—."

NAW has created an intersection between the world of wrestling and comedy. A lot of wrestlers want to be comedians and vice versa, Sterger said. At the end of each show, the judges pick two characters to face off in a battle of wits. The winner receives a company contract that doesn't pay in cash — it pays in clout, Hartline joked.

The winners are added to the cast of characters that can be used in other shows. They can interrupt any of their monthly shows, including its one-year anniversary show in May.

"There's nothing that's off the table," Hartline said.

"... It's a blank canvas and I can do anything with it as well as the people that come and participate."

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